When a user of a social networking service first registers to become a member of the social networking service, the user is typically prompted to provide a variety of personal or biographical information. Such information may include the person's full name, a picture (e.g., photograph) of the person, information about the person's current employment status (e.g., name of employer, industry of employer, current job title, and skills), information about the person's formal education (e.g., schools attended and degrees earned), and information about the person's interests generally. All of this information may be aggregated and stored to form what is commonly referred to as a profile, or member profile, of the member of the social networking service. Typically, each member of the social networking service has his or her own member profile, which may be presented in a member profile page. Although a member may establish access privileges that control what specific information is available for others (e.g., other members or the general public) to view, typically at least some (e.g., all) of the information included in a member's profile will be available for view by other members, non-member users, or both.
As a member uses the social networking service over time, the member may add information to his or her member profile (e.g., periodically, continuously, or otherwise repeatedly). For example, the member may update his or her profile to reflect his or her current employment status as the member leaves one employment position and takes on another. As the member unilaterally or bilaterally connects with (e.g., “follows” or “friends”) other members and organizations (e.g., companies or schools) represented in the social networking service, these associations (e.g., relationships) may be added to the member's profile and may consequently appear in the member's profile page. The member may add skills to his or her member profile (e.g., to highlight his or her special talents and expertise). The member may be endorsed by other members generally, and may have one or more of his or her skills endorsed specifically. Because the member's profile may represent the member's identify within the social networking service, the social networking services may form all or part of an ideal tool for searching, browsing, and researching people.
When the member's profile is viewed with a web browser application (e.g., executing on a laptop or desktop computer), the size of the display is typically not considered as a limiting factor, and thus the amount and nature of member profile information that can be presented at one time may have few bounds. Accordingly, the member profile page that presents the corresponding member profile on a display of a desktop computer or laptop computer may be configured to provide a very data-rich and feature-rich experience. However, on a mobile computing device (e.g., a smart phone or tablet computer), the display size typically limits the amount of information that can be presented on at one time (e.g., on one page or other user interface). Accordingly, when viewing a member's profile page on a mobile device, the experience may seem inferior when compared to the full desktop computer experience. Furthermore, many smart phones and tablet computers have touch-screen displays (e.g., with few physical buttons, if any), which may make data input burdensome. Consequently, accessing a member's profile information with a mobile computing device while on the move may be challenging. For those with a visual impairment, operating a mobile computing device via a touch screen interface may be impossible.
Furthermore, it may be helpful to review an individual's member profile (e.g., by viewing his or her member profile page) just prior to attending a meeting with that individual. However, with a busy schedule, taking the time to sit down and thoroughly review a member's profile page right before a meeting with that individual is not always an option. Operating a mobile computing device to access a member's profile page while traveling (e.g., driving to a meeting) may be difficult (if not impossible) and potentially dangerous. Consequently, it may be beneficial to provide a simpler interface for accessing information from a member profile, as well as information from other social networking applications.